I constantly feel the need for a simple dictionary widget configured to a keyboard shortcut which lets me find the meanings/spellings of words independent of the application that I am currently using. What is the best dictionary desktop widget available currently for Windows XP/7 ? There are a few Yahoo widgets available but I suppose that requires me to install the Yahoo Widget framework.

Don't forget that you could launch multiple instances of the same gadget, so I use 3 instances of Multisearchit one for a DRAE dictionary (Spanish Real Academia Dictionary), other with "Dictionary.com" and one for Wikipedia. For translation i use 2 instances of AutoTranslator, one setted to translate English-Spanish and other with Spanish to English.

How to use it:
well download, install and then when you need a definition or translation just press WIN+G and use the gadget that you want, then click in your application and continue your work.

Here is a cropped screenshot of my desktop with the gadgets that I mention:

I do not want the indexing and search which comes with Google Desktop. Is it possible to install just the Gadget framework ?
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StormshadowSep 6 '10 at 13:02

@Stormshadow - A good question. May I suggest that you ask it separately? I would vote +1 since I'd be interested in the answer
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NifleSep 6 '10 at 13:09

@Nifle I just installed Google Desktop and the default search is installed. The user has no choice to exclude it. Only the advanced search is optional (searching and indexing email).
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StormshadowSep 6 '10 at 16:53

@all you can turn off the indexing on the google desktop
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iDarineSep 7 '10 at 5:23